Trick or Treat!

Well, hello there! Look who fell off the face of the earth for a little while. We had a great Halloween that I've been waiting to really share with you, but then the weekend following Halloween Ellie developed a fever that quickly morphed into a nasty cold which kept her laid up (on me, primarily) all last week. As to be expected when your sick, snotty toddler only wants to cling to her mama and shower Mama with rather gooey kisses nonstop, I quickly followed suit and spent much of our long weekend on the couch or in bed. As lousy as it was to lose a three-day-weekend-o'-fun to illness, it was really nice to have Eric home for three days to take the lead on Toddler Duty so I could recuperate. And now, we're all on the mend (aside from some lingering coughs and sniffles), so we are no longer in Survival Mode and can return to the land of the living. It's good to be back!

So, now to backtrack to Halloween. This year we took Ellie out for her very first trick-or-treating experience. Our apartment complex does do trick-or-treating, but we felt a bit awkward taking Ellie around to people's homes to collect candy that she is still too young to eat. But, we have no issues with mooching candy from businesses, so we decided to take our Little Mermaid to the Avenues Mall for Mall-O-Ween 2013.

Of course, we all went in costume, because why waste those babies just lying around the house? (For the record, my Ursula the Evil Sea Witch costume was somewhat lost on Ellie, who thought I was a "pretty spider." Whatever, she liked it!)

On our way into the mall for some trick-or-treating fun!

Ellie got the hang of things pretty quickly. With my guidance, we would walk up to the candy-givers and Ellie would let them put candy in her Elmo trick-or-treat bucket. She was kind of in awe of the whole thing. She wasn't at all bothered by the crowds (that's my city girl!) and walked for quite a bit until we made the call that it was a better idea to carry her.

Ellie's very first trick-or-treat!

Getting the hang of it

Wandering through the crowds

Cuteness.

When Ellie needed a break, we grabbed a seat right there on the mall floor.

Time to rest!

We made it through the majority of the mall, but eventually, things took a turn for the tearful.

Oh, toddlers and their mood swings. Am I right?

So, after a little cuddle and rest break, we called it a night and made our way home.

Hugs from the Sea Witch to reset

We trick-or-treated till we dropped!

Ellie rocked her first trick-or-treating experience overall, and I can't wait to do it again with her next year, when she'll be even more on board with the idea. In the meantime, I'll be over here munching on all her candy!